Five-year-old Heartache

Tonight Ashlyn came downstairs at 10:00 and started sobbing for "mommy".  

I went upstairs and laid down with her, stroking her hair and trying to figure out why she was so sad.  I asked her about school, and about her friends.  She didn't really answer.  While she laid on my lap crying, I had visions of having to beat up every single five-year-old in her class.  I don't like that she's gone for three hours every day, for the first time in her life I don't know what she does every single second.  Did I teach her well enough?  Does she know she's not supposed to pick her nose and not talk about poop?  I let her wear a crazy outfit today and paint a different color on every single finger nail and toe nail.  Did some mean kid tease her?   

But she loves school.

So is it the new baby then?  We went shopping tonight and we looked at little baby tutus, is she jealous?  She sobbed harder.  I figured we needed some good one-on-one time, so I proposed a date tomorrow night.  Just me and her and I asked her what she wanted to do...ICE CREAM.  She cried it and then started full body sobbing.

That's why she was sad.  We promised her ice cream tonight if she finished all of her dinner (6 cheesy noodles and 1 piece of broccoli).  She didn't.  So she didn't get ice cream, and she was heartbroken about it.

I'll admit that I was so relieved.  She fell asleep with a smile on her face after talking about all the toppings she'll put on her ice cream tomorrow night after she finishes all of her dinner.

Tonight I am grateful that my daughter is only five, and that I can still magically fix her problems.  And that her biggest hurt in life is rooted in ice cream, and I'm grateful that she'll still let me rock her to sleep.  That won't always be the case, I know it, so tonight I cherished every minute of it.